Central to the usefulness of computers is the ability to transmit and store large amounts of data. Recent developments in the area of video products has produced two separate systems for storing video signals. Both video cassette recorders and video disk players are now commercially available as consumer products in the U.S. Because each of these systems enables storage of video signals corresponding to 60 frames, or complete pictures, per second of video viewing time, and remembering the old adage that one picture is worth a thousand words, it can be readily appreciated that these systems enable storage of an enormous amount of data. The vast storage capacity permitted by these video systems is highly attractive if this storage capacity can be easily employed in computing applications. Due to the complex timing requirements of the raster-scanned video signals stored in these video storage media, generation and reception of data signals encoded in a form acceptable by these video storage media are complex tasks.
At present, there exists numerous low-cost, limited capacity computers which have the capability of generating color graphics. These computers could be employed with proper programming to generate composite video signals compatible with these video storage media for storing data if an appropriate encoding/decoding scheme could be developed. On the other hand, no such conveniently available equipment exists for readily decoding data stored in a video format for use by a computing system. It would be especially useful if such a system could be developed which would employ a minimum amount of timing circuitry, thereby reducing the cost and complexity of this system.